Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 4

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823-
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman
Number of Pages: 1094

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THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

If every cause must have its martyrs, as history seems to teach and example prove, what shall we say of that Satanic spirit which rises insatiate in Christian communities, lacking only the opportunity to crimson its horrid front with human blood.

The cause of Temperance and Prohibition in the Northwest looked upon him as its special champion. That cause trembled when its ablest exponent fell. In a single man it lost a host. He had helped to shape a cause, and had fought its battles, but its ul- timate triumph he was not permitted to enjoy.

His death, however, revolutionized Sioux City. For a day the Christian sense of the city appeared paralyzed; then rose the cry, "The saloons must go !" Outraged law and order began their suspended functions, and in less than a month every saloon was closed.

The funeral services were unusually impressive. The better element in Sioux City felt, at last, that their indifference might perhaps have contributed

to the calamity which had disgraced their town, and were ready to do anything in their power to make up for their delinquency. They realized that they had lost a personal friend. Even the wives of some of the saloon keepers came to the funeral to mingle their tears with the mourners. His own church could not hold the people, and the Presbyterian church was opened for additional services.

It is a fact that the man who shot Dr. Haddock was never punished. His name was Arensdorf, a German brewer. After a protracted trial before a jury packed to acquit, 11 of them declared him inno- cent, but one refused to acquit, declaring that he had been offered money if he would agree with the 11. Such a result is not to be wondered at when we consider that a single check for $25,000 was sent by an association in the East to defend the prisoners, and $25,000 will accomplish a great deal in a place like Sioux City.

THE POLITICS OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, WITH SOME PERSONAL REMINISCENCES.

SOME really intelligent men may think that mat- ters of a political character should be excluded from a local history. But in a Republic all questions re- lating to the public well-being must enter into more or less active consideration by the people, and affect their lives-for they are the only source of po- litical power, and merely delegate to their servants (the office-holders.) the functions of government. A complete History of Jefferson county would surely be inadequate if it failed to afford a place for the poli- ties of the era covered by its pages.

The first settlers of Jefferson county (1791 to 1820) came mainly from Western Massachusetts and Ver- mont, with quite a Connecticut contingent. If you draw a line east by north through those States you will touch nearly every county that sent its sons and daughters into Northern New York -- for it is a curious and instructive fact that nearly all consid- erable migrations have been from east to west, upon nearly the same parallels. Through Western Mass- achusetts into Northeastern New York poured in a steady stream those sturdy emigrants who settled the lands they tarried in, from the Hudson to the Mississippi in the North ; while in the South we ob- serve the same curious force impelling these living currents to move upon the same isothermal lines-

the Virginians from the James and the Rappahan- nock peopling first Kentucky and Southern Ohio and Indiana and Illinois, then Missouri and Arkan- sas, and so on to Southern California-transplant- ing to that distant region those characteristics that made Stockton and its homicidal Judge Terry even- tual possibilities.

"The Southron to his warmer clime, The Northman to his ice and snow."

These New Englanders became, by the mere force of personal ability, the dominating influence in the Black River country. The town meeting (as it liad been that of their ancestors) became their method of deciding what should be done in all matters pertain- ing to the public welfare. They were men of en- lightened ideas, profoundly respecting that inde- pendence which their fathers, and not a few among themselves, had helped to wrest from England by a long and peculiarly trying war. No man should call himself their master. They were a sturdy and an assertive race, entirely competent to govern them- selves in their own independent fashion. Such a creature as an office-seeker could not be found among them, for to have it known that one of their number

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

desired or sought an office would have been fatal to his success. Each man soberly considered himself competent to fill any office his fellow citizens might impose upon him, but felt it as a burthen patiently to be borne, yet never sought. Public office was then indeed a " public trust," never a source of gain.

As early as 1791-92 settlers began to penetrate the wilderness now known as Jefferson county, though it was not until 1805 that the county was definitely set off from Oneida. But as an indication of what at that early day (1805-6) had been accomplished, we note that the taxable values of the landed and personal property in Jefferson county had reached nearly a million of dollars-fully equal to double that sum in our day. In 1805 preparations had been made to build a court-house. The specific details of such historical facts will be duly chronicled in their appropriate place in this History, and are alluded to here merely as indications of the primal conditions which preceded movements generally classified as " political." But the partizan spirit became for the first time manifest in 1807, when Daniel D. Tomp- kins received 765 votes as against 615 for Morgan Lewis for governor, Lewis being elected. Yet it was not until 1820 that one of Jefferson's own citi- zens (Hon. Micah Sterling) went into the National Congress, the district then being the 18th in the State, comprising the counties of Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence.

Gradually, as in the case of Sterling, able and am- bitious men were coming into prominence, and ques- tions that concerned the State and the whole Nation began to become intermingled with local considera- tions-and then was developed the county conven- tion, made up of delegates from the towns. As there must ever be, in a Republic, two political parties- the one in power and the other trying to get in-so there naturally came to be two county conventions, each reflecting the views and making the nomina- tions of its party-a plan found so acceptable as to have been continued for three-quarters of a century, essentially unmodified,

The name " Democrat"-the most important and dominant party name the county or the Nation at large has ever known-dates almost from the birth of the Republic : and we introduce the name thus early so that we may explain its origin, and that, when used in this chapter hereafter, the reader may catch our meaning. There was, at the end of the 17th century, an earnest sympathy in these United States with France during her revolutionary crisis, and that sympathy continued unabated until the French Directory nearly precipitated a war upon us. The French Revolution, revolting as it must ever stand in history, was regarded as a democratic upri- sing (and therefore justifiable), especially when our people saw that the beloved Lafayette was at the liead of the National Guard, which had sided against their

king. The victory of France against the Germans at Jemappez was celebrated in the United States with joyful and noisy demonstrations, and was soon followed by the arrival in this country of Citizen Genet as the French minister, whose efforts seem to have been artfully directed towards embroiling the United States in a war with England. Under his guidance and patronage a Democratic Society was organized in Philadelphia, with Duponceau as sec- retary ; and its cunning method was to denounce all who opposed thiem as aristocrats. This society spread rapidly, its first definite aim being to gain enough ascendency in Pennsylvania to re-elect Gov. Mifflin. The effort was successful, and the Keystone State was rated as Democratic. In our own day it is not possible to realize how strong an influence European politics exerted in America. Obviously the country's interests lay in friendly intercourse with England, and the Federalists, bent on neutrality as to any of the wars of Europe, were accused of British procliv- ities, while the Democrats favored France. Demo- cratic clubs multiplied, French cockades were worn in the streets, and French songs sung at the theatres. It is well established that the doctrine of govern- ment " by the people" was widely disseminated by these organizations. The name of " Democrat " was used opprobiously by the Federalists to designate their opponents, much in the sense in which we in our day use the term "anarchist."

Another factor in the rise and increasing popular- ity of the Democratic party had its growth in our own State, then the most plutocratic in the Union, where grants of immense tracts of land by the State had been the means of creating powerful families, whose political influence had proved almost irresist- ible. This power they had kept up by imposing a property qualification for voting, thus actually dis- franchising a large body of the people. But during our Revolutionary struggle many of these wealthy families were on the Tory side, and at the conclusion of peace they found themselves disfranchised. The political control then passed into the hands of the Whigs, who in turn were dominated by the Sons of Liberty, under the leadership (in New York) of Hamilton, who had married a Schuyler.

When the Tammany Society was started (being a popular counterpart to the suspected Society of the Cincinnati), Aaron Burr was believed to control its policy, and he used that organization to undermine the influence of Hamilton, whom he regarded as a formidable rival. So long as Burr was in public life Tammany supported him, achieving his election to the United States Senate, and an even division be- tween him and Jefferson of the electoral vote in 1800. But the House of Representatives elected Jef- ferson. Burr having made himself odious by killing Hamilton in a duel, Jefferson completed his ruin in 1806 by denouncing his treasonable plots in the West,

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

and thus Jefferson was rid of two formidable rivals, and became heir to the Democratic sentiment in the North, and his name was indissolubly blended with that party, which he founded and may be said to have named.

The Federalists, who were the only nationally or- ganized opponents to the Democracy, from 1810 to 1822, were never popular in Jefferson county nor in the State at large. Those early settlers, as we have already shown, were essentially " democratic " both by education and occupation, and felt not the slight- est affiliation with an organization which bore the merited designation of the "silk-stocking party." And, much as it has been denied, it is historically true, that from the disintegrated elements of the early Federal party was formed the later Whig or- ganization, which, eminently patriotic and popular under the leadership of Henry Clay in the South and Daniel Webster in the North, was unable, with a single exception, to secure the electoral vote of New York-for it could not escape from the aristo- cratic reputation that clung to it -- until at last (in 1854) it became merged in the Republican organiza- tion, which was destined (in 1861) to become the grandly victorious Northern patriotic force that took up the gage of battle the crazy South, under its des- perate Democratic leadership, had so vauntingly thrown down in Charleston harbor. Having, under the wise leadership of Lincoln, brought the great civil war to its only rational conclusion by freeing the slaves, that party had in the meantime estab- lished a National system of banking and finance, and instituted other reforms in the government, that have proved of inestimable value to the country.

This somewhat lengthy yet purposely abridged explanation has appeared necessary in order to give definite names to (as well as trace the origin of) the two great political parties that now, in this cen- tennial year of Jefferson county's history, are strug- gling for supremacy-with Grover Cleveland in the Presidential chair (since March 4th, 1893), and Ros- well Pettibone Flower (since January 1, 1892), in the Gubernatorial chair of the great State of New York, both of them elected by the Democratic party and counted among its foremost advocates-a party, as described in one of our ablest Encyclopædias, that has "always maintained its cohesion, sometimes through difficulties and disasters which would have irretrievably destroyed any political organization with less discipline and partizan fealty. In its cu- rious history, while reverting to certain original principles with tolerable persistency, it has in its ex- igencies advocated in turn nearly every doctrine of its adversaries, and voted at one time in favor of what it denounced at another. It is in these respects to the United States what the Tory party is to Eng- land, and it illustrates the value of organization in prolonging party vitality."

Returning to our own local history, we find the Whigs and Democrats keeping up their political an- tagonism in Jefferson county until about 1842, with varying success, but generally with results favoring the Democracy, though Thomas C. Chittenden, a Whig, had been elected to Congress in 1840, a phe- nomenal year in politics. From 1815 to 1834, the year of his death, Perley G. Keyes (a contemporary of Jason Fairbanks, Joseph Sheldon, Hale Coffeen, Norris M. Woodruff, Hart Massey, and the other worthies of that time), had been the unchallenged " boss " in the county, and his behests were law to his subservient followers. At his death his abler lieutenant, Orville Hungerford, caught his mantle as it fell, and in 1842 was elected to Congress. From that time the county became more intimately and generally associated with National politics-for in Mr. Hungerford a man had come to the front whose personal popularity and conceded ability pro- claimed him a natural leader of men. He was born in Farmington, Conn., in 1790, and came to Water- town with his father in 1804. On reaching his ma- jority he entered upon mercantile life, in which he rapidly broadened until he was favorably known to almost every voter in the county, being a second time sent to Congress. In his first term at Washing- ton he was made chairman of the then important Committee of Accounts and Revolutionary Pensions, and displayed so much ability and integrity that at the beginning of his second term he was appointed chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, the most important committee of the House. He was the author of the protective tariff of that Congress, under which the country was remarkably prosper- ous and its industries rapidly developed. The South was then, and continued so until the war, opposed to the principle of protection and in favor of free trade-for, as she was the great producer of our lead- ing exports (cotton and tobacco) she naturally pre- ferred to buy her goods from those who purchased those great staples, and bring in such goods free from taxation. Though Mr. Hungerford felt that he had alienated the personal regard of many admi- rers in the South by his course in strenuously advo- cating the system of protection, he never lost their respect for him as a man.

At home, however, he was destined to encounter serious opposition, and from a variety of sources. In the first place, he had been so long successful as a merchant and leading citizen, and as a member of Congress for two terms, that there had sprung up around him a sort of "junta," who assumed (in his absence) to speak for him politically, and they looked upon it as a sort of sacrilege if any man aspired to an office who had not sprung from their ranks or was favored by them. This had been going on for quite a number of years almost unchallenged, and, as had been and is yet the case with many other able

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

men, Mr. Hungerford had at times felt constrained to use his influence, or it had been used in his ab- sence, to put in office men who had no just claim to popular favor, but who had managed to get through the polls successfully, impelled by the power of the "junta." In the second place, there was another, and a more potent influence which was destined to work disastrously upon Mr. Hungerford's political influence in the county and congressional district where he had so long and ably held sway. As early as 1846 there began to be heard the mutterings of that dreadful storm of fratricidal strife that was not to be stilled until half the families in the land were mourning for some kindred slain or maimed in the momentous struggle to maintain the national gov- ernment and the incidental freeing of the slaves. Mr. Hungerford, however, was spared any feeling of humiliation over what may be called the " displace- ment" of himself and friends from local political power -- for he died in 1851, universally regretted as one of the county's most respected, able and success- ful men.

The natural and increasing growth of the senti- ment for universal freedom in the United States found quick acceptance in Northern New York, a section settled by freemen; and it brought into im- mediate prominence, under the aggressive name of " Barn-burners," a troop of able young men who did not hesitate to make war upon the "Hunkers," that astute and venerable political faction who affiliated with their allies in the South, and had long held the leading offices in the Northern States. Foremost among these younger men, and perhaps the ablest and least selfish politician the county ever produced, was Charles Brooks Hoard, a citizen of Antwerp, in which town he had held several important offices. [See his biography ]. While not an orator, Mr. Hoard was an able organizer, and the inherent hon- esty of his purpose, joined to his powers of persua- sion, made him especially acceptable to his political associates. These active " Barn-burners " of New York State helped to form, and in their localities be- came leaders in, the national organization known as "Republican," which continues to this time as the persistent antagonist of the Democracy and its dic- tatorial adjunct, Tammany Hall. The influence of these younger men, impelled as they were by the constraining force of a popular demand for freedom in the territories (now free States), soon proved too much for the "Hunkers " in Jefferson county and the State, as well as throughout the Northern States, and in 1854 the National House of Representatives became Republican, Charles B. Hoard having been elected the member from the Jefferson and Lewis district. He succeeded Caleb Lyon, after an inter- val of one term, filled by W. A. Gilbert. Lyon was elected (in 1842) as an independent candidate in op- position to the Democratic nominee.

THE IRRUPTION OF CALEB LYON INTO JEFFERSON COUNTY POLITICS.

HON. CALEB LYON.

PERHAPS nothing can more clearly illustrate the general political discontent in Jefferson county with the protracted dictation of " Hunkerism," as man- aged by the "junta " who had acquired their influ- ence through Mr. Hungerford-than the remarkable manner in which the mass of the people supported Caleb Lyon when he ran for Congress. The tremen- dous political cyclone which had burst upon the Democratic party in 1840, and placed Gen. Harrison in the Presidential chair-memorable as the " log cabin and hard-cider " campaign-had elected Thos. C. Chittenden the Member of Congress, in his time the only Whig partizan who had held that im - portant office. Caleb Lyon was also a pronounced Whig, but his father had been in his day an active supporter of his personal friend, Wm. L. Marcy, a distinguished and uncompromising Democrat. The elder Lyon had secured from the French (Cassenais) Company a large tract of pine land about, the high falls on Black River, and to these falls his name has been given. One day his horse came home without a rider, and an immediate search revealed his dead body by the roadside, where he had dismounted and died from heart-failure. His youngest son, Caleb, received a good classical education, and had also an excellent tutor in an older sister, who was well edu- cated, and much devoted to her brother. He went to California in 1849, having sailed from New York with Bayard Taylor, on the "Tarolinta," which had among her passengers and crew many bright fellows,

" Who went, with hearts elate, To found another empire, to build another State."

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

Lyon received from the California Constitutional Convention $1000 in gold for designing the seal of that State, and this was a triumph over numerous and able competitors. Returning to his home near Lyons Falls, he made the tour of Europe and the Holy Land. These incidents in his life (at this day regarded as but slim foundation for a political career), gave him a certain character, and he courted noto- riety by always appearing with a flaming neck-tie and curiously grotesque clothes. These, combined with his long hair (reaching to his shoulders) made him a striking feature in modern civilization.

His first attempt to run for office was in '48, when he appealed to the citizens of Lewis county to elect him to the Legislature, mainly because he was, as he expressed it, "a poor Black River boy." He was elected, and while serving his term in the Assembly there occurred that unique manœuvre which induced certain members of the State Senate to resign, and seek a re-election from their constituents as a vindi- cation of their votes upon some party question affect- ing the canals; a proceeding paralleled, long after- wards, in the National Senate, when the dictatorial Conkling and his colleague, " Me-too " Platt, flouted out of that body in a " huff" because President Gar- field had nominated a customs collector for the port of New York who was not a follower of those gen- tlemen, wlio called upon the Legislature (then in session) to condemn an independent and honorable President by re-electing them to the positions they had vacated in anger. Like these two worthies, these State Senators, having "shunted " themselves from the main line on to a side-track, were allowed by the people to stay " shunted " for life. The se- ceding Senator from the Jefferson and Lewis district was Alanson Skinner, of Brownville, a somewhat phlegmatic, but really a very respectable man. Lyon immediately proclaimed himself as a candidate for the vacant seat. He was elected-thus, with only a brief interval, becoming a member of both divis- ions of the Legislature. While the restricting limit- ations of his capacity must ever have precluded him from acceptably filling any position that called for in- dustry and a thorough knowledge of public affairs or a proper understanding of the people's wants, he yet had a persuasive and a flattering tongue, which at times served him in the absence of sincerity and ability.

His term as State Senator having expired, he an- nounced himself as an independent candidate for Congress. Fortunately for him, the Hunker Demo- crats put in nomination Mr. Pearson Mundy, an esti- mable gentleman, supported by the powerful and wealthy Woodruff family, But he had been nearly all his business life a wholesale grocer. The tem- perance vote was then (as now) an important factor in Jefferson county politics. Mr. Mundy had also been an active member of the Hungerford " junta,"

and that operated against him. Lyon began his canvas a month before Mundy was nominated. He spoke in school-houses and at cross-roads, and in some villages in the churches, calling his talks at such times "Lectures on the Holy Land." In many ways he worked himself into the favor of the religious and temperance people. The "Barn-burner " con- tingent among the Democrats looked on smilingly, for they soon saw that Lyon was gaining ground so rapidly that Mundy's defeat would be accomplished without their being called upon to lift a finger to ef- fect that (to them) desired end.

Lyon had no newspaper organ, and perhaps one would have been an incumbrance, for his promises to the people were so varied, and at times so gro- tesque that to have printed them from cold type might have proved embarassing. He was greatly aided and admirably coached, however, by an able young newspaper man whose sincere friendship he had secured, and this friend's disinterested counsel materially aided Lyon's prospects. Gradually, from one school-district to another, he drew nearer and nearer to the geographical and business centre of the county. The "grape-vine" telegraph had been active, and public curiosity was by this time won- derfully wrought up; so that when he finally burst upon Watertown on the Saturday evening previous to the election, the largest hall could not hold the people, the assemblage adjourning to Paddock's ar- cade, where Lyon spoke from one of the balconies. He pathetically reminded the vast audience that he was still the " poor Black River boy," who had all the newspapers against him because he was not rich enough to buy the editors ; that he was then, as he had ever been, the poor man's friend, etc., etc. A sort of frenzy seemed to possess that audience; after the speech they swarmed out of the arcade, shouting "Lyon !" " Lyon !" Such another sight was never seen there before nor since. The few politicians at the meeting who retained their senses saw that the Democratic day was lost. Lyon won by a decided majority, and that ended any future attempt to elect to an important office in Jefferson county any man who had been a prominent "Hunker " Democrat.

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Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 4

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823- Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman Number of Pages: 1094

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823-
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman
Number of Pages: 1094